Bear's Top Ten Favorite Things Today:









10. Anything in her mouth
9. Bike rides
8. Crawling--forwards now...
7. Standing
6. Cruising
5. Cheese
4. Squealing
3. Clapping
2. Oscar
1. Her number one favorite thing is anything have to do with big sister Elsie.

Elsie Says...



Elsie says bird poop is "bisgusting" and ice cream is "dewicious."

Elsie says her daddy is her "special girl" and she is "bery big now."

Elsie says that one day she will let her babies play with her toys and that she will always live with Mommy and Daddy.

Elsie says that she loves reading, biking, jumping, and hiding most of all.

Elsie says she loves broccoli and cucumbers the best today and tells me that they are "healfy" and will make her "muscles grow strong." Elsie is over turkey, cheese, carrots (which she refuses to chew), and cereal--all of which she loved the day before yesterday.

Elsie says that friendly trolls, monsters, and fairies live with us and we have to be careful not to step on them.

Elsie says what should be done every time she leaves the house to whoever is staying: "Nonie--don't forget to feed Bear...," "Daddy make sure you shower while we are gone," and "Oscar-take a nap."

Elsie says "I lub you..."

E...L...S...I...E Elsie

Making Lemonade...

Put a Sock in It

Some Girltalk

Post-Birthday Celebration Continues

"...and if you are really good when you are three, we won't feed you to the alligators"--a Sunday evening post-birthday bash weekend dinner with Grammy at the Crab Shack on Tybee...

Our Growing Girls



















So here are the stats:

At Elsie's three year checkup, she was in the 97th %tile for height at just over 40 inches tall and the 92%tile for weight at 37 lbs. She is long and lean, fast and strong, smart and funny, joyful and impassioned, delightful and maddening.

At Kit's 9 month checkup, she was in the 95th %tile for height at just over 29 inches (watch out Elsie!) and the 90th %tile for weight at 21 1/2 lbs with a dainty little head in the 37 %tile. She is chubby and sturdy, lovey and laughy, sweet and cuddly, mellow and bright, and laughs like a little baby George W. Bush.

DBC: The Dusty Book Club, the Second Generation


So, I just ran across these pictures I never posted from late July. We had Amanda and her boys over for dinner when they were in town visiting Amanda's mom--so Elsie got naked and turned on the sprinkler. I don't know if that says something about Elsie, her parents, or how adorable Amanda's boys are.

What I do know is that we all were excited to have Amanda and the Meckel boys there. It would have been a scene hard for us to imagine years ago when Amanda and I spent every July at 20 Belted Kingfisher HHI in the hammock and on the beach, on our bikes or on rafts, at her grandparents next door on the screen porch or in our driveway putting on musical theater. It would have been a scene we might have tried to imagine in the letters that traveled fairly regularly between Rye, NY and Atlanta, GA through the winter months full of middle-school angst and high school drama and book recommendations, of course. It was definitely a scene that exceeded even our extravagant imaginings--our little ones running wild, playing together as well as we ever did with our siblings, Sarah and Liza, Barbara and Johnny.

We may have been able to imagine that Amanda would be an amazing novelist and I would be an English professor and teacher, but I don't think we could have fathomed our little people and all that they already are and what we have become through them.

Namaste





How cute are these?

We had a fairly quiet weekend with some of that rain that Atlanta had... thankfully, not as much. We did get in some bike rides though--and lots of armchair quarterbacking.

And check these out: Elsie's first yoga class! Thanks to Royston and Anne for the pictures--that's Hart there next to E. The Gaddy kids (and Ashley, too!) are also there in the background. It was lots of fun and we hope to go again.

Elsie is 3!

Our Nonie!

Prepping for Party